Does Berlin Need a New Art School?

RING ART SCHOOL - BERLIN 2013 frieze d/e magazine asked Does Berlin Need a New Art School? Unlike most other European cities, Berlin has no one centre. Art in Berlin is just as decentralised as the city, neither artists & their studios nor galleries gather in Ghettoes, and this remains the case even under a marked effort by the political establishment to bring all of Berlin's most important museums within walking distance of the Museumsinsel. A new art school should reflect and reinforce this precious de-centrality which has made Berlin such a fertile place for artists. Our project proposes to distribute the new art school along the route of the Berliner Ringbahn and to connect the school directly via escalators to the platforms of each activated station. The project would begin with four pavilions at each of the four main hubs of the Ring, Ostkreuz, Sudkreuz, Westkreuz, and Gesundbrunnen and would use the Trains themselves as moving connecting corridors. Each of the four main hubs are separated by just 15 minutes travelling time, just enough time for students to prepare themselves for the next lecture, for tweeting and updating blogs or for class discussions on burning topics. In fact the essential interior spaces of the new Art School are those within the trains themselves. These are not corridors but connecting spaces which connect the students to the school and the school to every corner of the city. All aboard!